McClaren, on his way to succeeding Sven Goran Eriksson as England manager after the 2006 World Cup, did it as a parting gift to the chairman and owner Steve Gibson.

When Gibson turned the key to the padlocked gates at Ayresome Park in 1985, he dreamed of the day when he could field a team full of local heroes.

He also wanted to promote Middlesbrough’s thriving academy system, raising the profile of Rockcliffe Park after picking 15 homegrown players born within 30 miles of the Riverside Stadium.

Incredibly, it is also the last time a manager of a Premier League team selected an entire squad of players born in England (although James Morrison, born in Darlington, later opted to play for Scotland).

Malcolm Christie, now a car salesman at Aston Martin, was the only player in Middlesbrough’s 16-man travelling party signed for a transfer fee.

This is the team McClaren picked on May 7, 2006 in his final Premier League game in charge of Middlesbrough:Ross Turnbull, Andrew Davies, Matthew Bates, David Wheater, Andrew Taylor, James Morrison, Lee Cattermole, Jason Kennedy, Adam Johnson, Danny Graham and Christie.

Among the substitutes were the veteran defender Colin Cooper, along with Tom Craddock, Josh Walker, David Knight and Tony McMahon.

Fast-forward to Roy Hodgson’s
appointment as England’s new manager and there is only player from the
team beaten at Craven Cottage who will even be on his radar for Euro
2012.

Hodgson’s 23-man
squad will be lodged with UEFA on May 29, but Middlesbrough’s team that
day is no more than a footnote in England’s history.

Only Adam Johnson, who made 96 appearances for Middlesbrough before moving to Manchester City, is the only player who will be under consideration for the national team.

Many of them should be in their prime, maturing into players with Premier League pedigree after given an unexpected opportunity just days before Middlesbrough played Sevilla in the UEFA Cup final.

They have failed to make the progress McClaren expected, with many of them lurching from one loan spell to another after the initial impact began to wear off.

At 27, the keeper should be first-choice somewhere, but Ross Turnbull is behind Petr Cech and Hilario at Chelsea, and has made just three appearances since he signed in 2009 after loan spells with six lower league clubs.

He did not progress beyond the England Under-19 team and has no hope of dislodging Cech as first-choice keeper at Stamford Bridge.

There have been mixed results for Middlesbrough’s back four, with Wheater going on to win 11 England Under-21 caps and remaining in the Premier League with Bolton.

Davies had nine loan spells and is
now at Bradford; Bates is now captain of the Middlesbrough team who
finished seventh in the Championship under Tony Mowbray; Taylor was
moved on to Cardiff.

Of the midfield, Morrison elected to play for Scotland in 2008 and has gone on to make 20 appearances for his adopted country.

Vision: Steve McClaren offered a glimpse of a different path at Boro

Johnson, who moved to Manchester City for £7million in 2010, can be considered the success story after representing his country 10 times and scoring twice.

Cattermole, sent of six times in his career, has 16 caps for England Under-21 team, but is well short of the standard required for the senior side.

Kennedy had loan spells at Boston, Doncaster, Livingston and Darlington before settling for Spotland and a career with Rochdale.

Graham, who was capped by England at Under-20, is finally back in the Premier League with Swansea after spells with Carlisle and Watford.

Christie, capped by England’s Under-21 team at the start of his career with Derby, wound up his career after a short spell at Leeds. Their lack of progress underscores just what a difficult job it will be for Hodgson to select a team for Euro 2012 and beyond.

Despite McClaren’s rave and rarefield reviews of his young Middlesbrough team in 2006, they will not be troubling England’s established order this summer. This lack of competition continues to affect the manager of the national team, but it is likely to become more acute after the Euros.

It may be then that Hodgson follows a different path, putting his faith in players who will be expected to make up the nucleus of the team for the World Cup in Brazil in 2014.

Six years ago, McClaren predicted that some his young Middlesbrough side would graduate from the training ground hub at Rockcliffe Park to the international team.

Today, that group of potential international players makes grim reading for Hodgson.